President Donald Trump on Monday signed executive orders proclaiming that the U.S. government will recognize male and female, thus ending “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programmes inside federal agencies.
In a phone call Monday morning before Trump’s swearing-in, senior White House officials detailed both orders, grouping them under the Trump administration’s wider “restoring sanity” agenda.
The gender order states that it will “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
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It requires that the federal government use the term “sex” instead of “gender,” and directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.
This is wrong,” the order reads. “Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”
“The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system,” it continues. “Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.”
In 2022, the Biden administration allowed U.S. citizens to be able to select the gender-neutral “X” as a marker on their passports. On Tuesday, a page on the State Department website that had previously included instructions on updating passport gender markers was no longer accessible, instead redirecting to a general U.S. passports page.
The gender order also prevents taxpayer funds from being used for gender-transition health care and mandates “privacy in intimate spaces” to ensure that single-sex spaces, such as prisons and rape shelters, are designated by sex and not gender identity.
Lastly, it directs federal agencies to rescind all guidance documents inconsistent with the gender order, including those titled: “White House Toolkit on Transgender Equality,” “Supporting Transgender Youth in School” and “Confronting Anti-LGBTQI+ Harassment in Schools: A Resource for Students and Families.”
Trump campaigned on rolling back protections for transgender and nonbinary people and emphasized the issue in television advertisements, including a commercial that aired frequently in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, where Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” the most notable ad said.
The second order will end what it describes as the federal government’s “discriminatory” DEI policies, positions and offices within 60 days, singling out environmental justice programs and equity-related grants.
The new administration will hold monthly meetings with the deputy secretaries of key agencies to “hear reports on the prevalence and the economic and social costs of DEI,” the order states.
In a phone call before the DEI order was signed, a senior White House official said it was “very fitting” that it was to be signed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day because the “order is meant to return to the promise and the hope, captured by civil rights champions, that one day all Americans can be treated on the basis of their character, not by the color of their skin.”
In recent years, Trump and conservatives have assailed DEI initiatives across American society, characterizing them as discriminatory.
Trump referred to the orders in his inaugural address Monday, saying in part that his administration would resist what he described as efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” He added that his administration would “forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.”
‘Have mercy on your constituents’- Bishop pleads
The bishop leading the inaugural prayer service on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on his constituents, specifically naming LGBTQ people and immigrants.
The sermon by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, was part of a larger post-Inauguration Day interfaith ceremony at Washington National Cathedral.
Trump was seated in the first row alongside first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance during the service, a tradition undertaken by presidents of both parties.
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” said Budde, who was looking directly at the president.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.”
She added: “They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues.”
When Budde finished her sermon, Trump leaned over to say something to Vance, who shook his head in response.
Later, as Trump was walking through the White House colonnade with his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, reporters asked him what he thought of the sermon. He asked the group, “Did you like it? Find it exciting?”
He then added that he “didn’t think it was a good service, no” and said they “could do much better.”
